05/13/2017 / By Jayson Veley
A black student group at the University of California, Santa Cruz recently occupied a campus building and refused to leave until the school administration complied with all of their demands. The school was given four months to meet all of the demands, or else “more reclamations” would result. (RELATED: College students are the new extortionists: Yale students demand $8 million from university… or else!)
After the student group had occupied Kerr Hall for three days, the administration finally gave in and agreed to give them everything they wanted, which included a 4-year housing guarantee for all black and Caribbean-identified students, a restoration of the student lounge in the Rosa Parks African-American Themed House, a new layer of paint over the exterior of the dorm building to make it the “Pan-Afrikan colors” of red, green and black, and the implementation of a new school requirement that all incoming students go through a mandatory diversity training course.
“The student demonstrators raised a number of issues with campus leaders, issues we fundamentally agree upon,” said Chancellor George Blumenthal in a memo to the campus community. “Students from historically underrepresented communities deal with real challenges on campus and in the community. These difficulties include things that many people take for granted, such as finding housing or even just a sense of community.”
But apparently, even though the school generously met all four of the students’ original demands, it still wasn’t enough. The group laid out an additional set of three demands, and warned UC Santa Cruz that “there will be more reclamations” unless the school responds to the demands by Fall Quarter 2017. These three additional demands are one, that the university purchases a property “to serve as a low income housing cooperative for historically disadvantaged students,” two, that the school finds a way to come up with $100,000 for the “SOMeCA” student organization support department, and three, that the university establishes either a Black Studies department or a Black Studies minor or major.
Regardless of what side of the political spectrum you are on, it should be obvious that universities should not be operating this way. The school administration is supposed to be maintaining some level of order, not letting their students threaten and intimidate them into total complacency. In order to straighten things out and restore a sense of civility at the University of California, Santa Cruz, two things need to happen.
First, with all due respect, the school administration and Chancellor Blumenthal need to grow some spines. It’s clear that the university is being run by the student body, and the administration is more than willing to roll over and let it happen. Chancellor Blumenthal and other administrators need to stand up, make it clear what they expect of students, and then take action against those who step out of line. Failure to do this will inevitably lead to more “demonstrations” like the one the Black Student Alliance is putting on now (RELATED: Tyrannical Leftists at UC-Berkeley once again cancel Ann Coulter’s speech – where’s that coward, Gov. Jerry Brown?)
Second, these students need to understand that they are not entitled to everything. They can’t just skate through life making demand after demand and then threatening to take action if they don’t get what they want. Not only is that irresponsible, but it is a complete misconception of how the real world works. After college, the Black Student Alliance won’t have any dorm buildings to occupy or school administrators to complain to when all of their life goals don’t automatically fall into their laps.
Frankly, UC Santa Cruz made a substantial mistake when they decided to give into the students’ demands, because now they know exactly what to do whenever they see a new shiny toy they want. The university needs to send a clear message that complaining and whining will no longer be rewarded, and until that happens, nothing will change.
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Tagged Under: campus, education, entitlements, millennials, UC Santa Cruz